The recent development of multi-media technology and information technology has increased the comfort and convenience of vehicles through providing infotainment for the driver. In addition, an increasing number of devices are being operated by drivers and a greater amount of information has been required from components of the vehicle due to the complexity and various running patterns of the vehicle. In addition, the types of information to be provided for the driver vary greatly in the form of sound, text, graphics, or images.
Modern vehicles typically include various types of convenience devices, such as a vehicle audio/video system or a vehicle navigation system for providing map information or traffic information. For instance, an audio, video & navigation (AVN) system integrating an audio system, a video system, and a navigation system, and including a terminal, is able to communicate with the components of the vehicle. The AVN system may output various forms of information including driving-related information, location and map information, or media (audio or video) information in the form of audio or images to be provided for the driver.
Conventionally, voice recognition functions have included making a call through voice input or controlling various operations of a terminal, among other functions of a mobile communication terminal. Voice recognition technology generally refers to a technology of recognizing a voice signal of a human being using a computing device (e.g., computer) to detect underlying linguistic information, and performing action corresponding to the detected command. For example, a call can be made automatically when a voice is input into a mobile communication terminal if contacts, such as a phone number, are stored in a memory of the mobile communication terminal.
Such voice recognition functions have been partially applied to a vehicle. Recently, as the need for driver information has increased, a voice recognition module has been linked to a vehicle terminal allowing a driver to request information by voice. The vehicle terminal provides information requested by the driver according to the voice request of the driver which is recognized through the voice recognition module. However, the information provided is limited only to the specific information requested by the driver. That is, the conventional voice recognition systems do not proactively provide functions predicted to be useful to the driver.